Fighter brands:

A fighter brand is designed to combat, and ideally eliminate, low-price competitors while protecting an organizations premium-price offeringsEconomic strains are now causing consumers to trade down, and many midtier and premium brands are losing share to low-price rivals. Philip Morris used the strategy in 1998 as they had problem with their brand Marlboro.. Test-marketing is the beure that a fighter brand can compete with low-price offerings without robbing significant sales from its higherprice, more profitable sister brand. in many cases organizations actually overprotect their premium brands from cannibalization at the expense of the combative potential of their fighter brand. Prepared market test your fighter brand and be pre pared to recalibrate its price and performance to ensure it finds the sweet spot between cannibalizing over performance and uncompetitive underperformance. Fighter brand success depends on more than initially matching the price and value of your intended enemy; you must also achieve those goals while attaining a sustainable level of profits. The DNA of a fighter brand is therefore potentially flawed from the very outset because it is derived from company deficiencies and competitor strengths, not a focus on consumers. A manager will probably never encounter a strategy as tempting or as potentially ruinous as a fighter brand.

Principle of pricing
A price is an expression of value. In the competitive milieu pricing is game playing Pricings role in the marketing mix is to tap in to the value created and generate revenues getting pricing right is a big deal. The value-pricing approach to product pricing is driven by a small handful of factors. One of these factors is the objective value the product delivers to the consumer, also called true economic value (TEV), this is a measure of the benefits that the product delivers to the consumer, and regardless of whether the consumer recognizes those benefits. Perceived value is the value the consumer understands the product to deliver. It is important to note that the perceived value of a product to a consumer should equal the maximum price that the consumer is willing to pay for the product. The last

major component to the economic approach to pricing involves the firms COGS. Just as the consumer requires an incentive to purchase a product, the firm requires an incentive to sell the product. While it is important to understand the objective value a new product delivers, it is equally important to understand the value of that product as perceived by potential consumers. Price sensitivity, with that sensitivity varying across customers, across time, and across products Price sensitivity tends to be far greater in high-cost than in low-cost product categories. Some products are paid for by the customer. Some are not. When value varies across customers, a pricing program should consider whether to customize price according to the value received, thereby charging a higher price to those who value the product more. Finally, a key to effective pricing is to have a firms pricing strategy in synch with the other elements of the marketing mix. , pricing is an activity that can raise a number of legal and ethical issues whose resolution requires full consideration of the specific context., Predatory pricingthat is, pricing low for a time to drive a competitor from the marketplace. Price fixingsetting prices in collusion with competitors Price maintenancerequiring that distributors or retailers sell only at a specified price. A firm may suggest reseller prices (as in the case of a manufacturers suggested retail price) but may not require that such prices be maintained pricing practices should be subjected to both an ethical review and an informed legal review within the company before being implemented.